#MarketRebound $BTC $ETH $BNB Changpeng Zhao, one of the richest and most influential figures in the cryptocurrency industry, is back in the spotlight this week after receiving a pardon from President Donald Trump, a pardon that renews concerns that those with significant economic resources may have bought their way out of trouble under Trump.

It's hard to overstate how much Zhao, known as “CZ”, has shaped the cryptocurrency industry since launching Binance in 2017 and turning it into the world's largest digital asset exchange platform.

Not only is Binance by far the largest cryptocurrency exchange platform in the world, both by number of users (280 million globally) and trading volume (over US$ 217 billion daily), but it also boasts a 40% market share among centralized cryptocurrency exchanges.

However, Binance has not always complied with the regulations governing the sale of financial services in various countries, including the United States, which effectively banned the global version of the platform in 2019. (In response, Binance launched a more limited service, Binance.US, although in practice many users within U.S. borders found ways to circumvent the ban, according to media reports and the Department of Justice.)

U.S. federal prosecutors said in 2023 that Binance had become a hub for malicious actors, allowing transactions linked to child sexual abuse, narcotics, terrorism financing, and money laundering. According to the Department of Justice, Binance also lacked protocols — standards for financial services companies to report transactions that posed money laundering risks, and employees were fully aware that such omissions would invite criminals to the platform.